


Office Hours

by winter_scldier



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Professors, Crowley Has Chronic Pain (Good Omens), Disabled Character, Disabled!Crowley, M/M, Married Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-26 20:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19775689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winter_scldier/pseuds/winter_scldier
Summary: Dr. Crowley was one of the most loved professors in the University. His students loved taking his class so much, he had to extend his office hours. All his students can't wait to hear more stories of his loving mystery husband.Dr. Fell wasn't one of the more popular professors, but his literature students love him to death. He's very quiet about his home life, careful about how much information he gives away to his students.At night, after a hard day of teaching, the two go home and deal with modern married life.





	1. Dr. Crowley

Crowley sauntered into his office early one Monday morning and sprawled himself onto his chair. Today was going to be a particular bad day for the pain down his spine and into his hips. His knees ached with every step, and cracked with every bend. He let out a deep sigh as he looked at the stack of papers that seemed to constantly be growing on the corner of his desk. He begrudgingly sat up with a grimace, grabbed his pen, and started grading.

It wasn't long before he heard the chatter of students in the hallways. Some waved at him through open blinds before continuing on, others offered up a nice smile. Even as a demon, it was still nice to feel appreciated.

He stood up with a groan and pop, having to stabilize himself on his desk, knuckles turning white. Letting out a sharp breath of pain, he grabbed his case and made his way to his classroom. His students were anxiously looking over their botany notes, only slightly dreading the quiz ahead of them.

The class started off with a usual anecdote about his mysterious husband and the exciting weekend they had in central London. He did a small pace in front of the whiteboard as he talked, too lost in the memory to notice the ache in his knees. As they started their quiz, he almost collapsed into the chair. He rubbed at the joints, hopelessly looking for relief. Only his husband knew just how to make it feel better. 

Crowley had tried all sorts of treatment for his pain. But his spine was twisted, and his hips were just off enough for nothing to work. Drugs, Eastern medicine, Western medicine. Nothing worked. And the damp, cold weather in London didn't help. Aziraphale was the only one who eased his pain enough to let him focus, even on the bad days. 

He adjusted his glasses, and tried to find a more comfortable position. He opened up his case and took out the graded papers, and put them on his desk. He rolled his desk chair over to the board and wrote instructions for after the quiz. 

As everyone finished, he turned on a documentary about the proper types of soil. He turned off the lights and limped towards his office. He lied down on the office floor, letting the pain take him. His eyes let out a little tear from the pain. He knew his students were beginning to worry about him. He'd hoped the darkness of the classroom would hide his occasional limping, but it was incredibly obvious. A few students had given him sympathetic glances when he passed them on campus, but he tended to ignore them.

As the final block came to an end, Crowley was happy to meet Aziraphale in the parking lot. 

"How bad is the pain?" It was a routine question now. Quickly followed by a kiss on the cheek and a slow exit from the campus. But Zira knew the answer the second he saw Crowley. He looked like he could barely stand. "I just want to crawl into bed," Crowley said after a minute. "I'm in so much fucking pain."

Crowley sprawled himself out on the couch as Aziraphale massaged down his spine, feeling the vertebrae beneath the his skin. They made small talk about the day and lesson plans, trying to distract Crowley from the pain. He usually drank about half a bottle of whiskey after Aziraphale went to sleep, hoping the alcohol took away the pain. It never really did, but he kept trying. 

Soon, he slowly found his way to the bedroom, lying as comfortably as he could make himself, he slept.


	2. Dr. Fell

Aziraphale made his way down to Crowley's office to let him know he would be there late grading essays when he found him sprawled out on the floor. He rushed to help him in a panic, dropping the stack of papers he was carrying. Crowley tried to stand up, but the sharp pain in his lower back held him down. 

"I'm _fine_ " He protested on top of Aziraphale's worried questions. "It's just my back. The weather is utter shit today." 

Aziraphale had his suspicions over the years. He always wondered what made Crowley stay in bed for days on end in the winter seasons, what made him constantly rub his knees, what made him complain about how canes went out of style. He just never thought he'd find his husband, eyes glossy from the pain, suffering alone in his office. 

That was a few years ago. Aziraphale used to be mad at Crowley for keeping his pain a secret for all those years, but now he understood. On the days the pain was so bad he couldn't seem to get out of bed, Aziraphale drained his energy trying to take ache away. Crowley noticed too. He saw the way Aziraphale would collapse on the bed, drained after a day of teaching and looking after him. In truth, Crowley didn't allow Aziraphale to know when he was having a bad day.

....

"Dr. Fell?" a student asked as they knocked on his office door. "Are you doing okay? You seemed a little distracted during the lecture today." 

Aziraphale sighed and gave a half-hearted smile. "Quite fine dear, thank you. I'm just tired is all."

He hadn't been able to focus on Shakespeare that day, which worried the class. Shakespeare always seemed to make Dr. Fell's eyes light up with joy. It was his favorite topic of the semester, and it pained the students to see him so unhappy. Aziraphale was very quiet about his home life, very unlike Crowley. 

....

Today, it was the knees. He had snuck a cane into the Bentley, very happy with the relief it provided. He knew his students would question it, but he didn't care. Sure enough, the minute he limped into the lecture hall, he was met with raised hands and puzzled looks. Out came the truth.

"I'm in pain," Crowley started. "Have been for years. It's in my knees, my hips, and all down my spine. I've mostly been able to keep it at bay, and not let it interfere with my teaching, but today I didn't have a choice. I don't want you to think any less of me now that you know this. I'm still your botany professor Dr. Crowley, but I will probably be walking with a cane from this day forward. Now, on to today's topic. Fertilizer!"

Class went on as normal as possible, but it wouldn't be fully the same without Crowley's famous saunter (which now they knew was caused by his uneven hips) and his sarcastic quips he used to cover up for agony. However, he seemed happier. He smiled more, and interacted with the students more. He talked more and more about his husband (he had a name now, he called him Zira) and bragged about their lunch dates. He didn't miss class anymore, and was more enthusiastic about the topic of the day. But one day, it all went down hill again.


	3. Love and Hurt

Pain usually gets worse with age, and unfortunately for Crowley, that was the case. With each passing semester, the cane did even less than before. Instead of relief, he was faced with almost unbearable shoulder and wrist pain by the end of the day. He spent most of his time lounging uncomfortably in his desk chair, only getting up a few times a day. Students these days just knew Dr. Crowley as the gay, disabled botany professor. 

He was angrier now too. Not that anybody noticed though. Back when he started using the cane, his students would recall exciting days of zero work, and story telling sessions about Dr. Crowley's husband. Now it was a more strict regime. More lectures and more paperwork led to a dwindling of students taking the class, which meant Crowley would spend blocks once full of students alone in his office, caring to a small plant he had growing in the corner of his desk. If there were literature students taking a test, sometimes he would chat with Aziraphale over campus email. 

...

"Maybe it's time for something more drastic than a cane," Crowley said lying down on Aziraphale's lap. "All it does is give me bloody shoulder pain." This was most of their evening discussions these days. Crowley would shift uncomfortably on the couch all evening, prompting Aziraphale to massage down the very twisted spine that peaked out from Crowley's thin back. "Maybe it's time I resigned myself to a chair." 

This was the one thing Aziraphale had never hoped to see. Crowley had never been one to give up in a tough time, and seeing him like this just made his heart break. Crowley wasn't happy about a chair either. Sitting down was only marginally better than standing. It's only benefit was taking pressure off his knees, but it just caused his back to ache even more than normal. 

Crowley didn't have "good days" anymore. Sure, some days were better than others, but the best they could get was general annoyance throughout the day. He didn't have very many blocks after he begrudgingly showed up with a wheelchair. He would spend hours lying on the lecture hall floor trying to stretch and straighten out his spine. Aziraphale would spend his free blocks trying to ease the pain and encourage Crowley to walk around so his legs didn't get too weak. 

...

Aziraphale had wanted to adopt a child for years, but knew with Crowley's worsening condition, it was a terrible idea. They had the stable income, but Aziraphale had to spend a lot of time and energy caring for his husband. But he didn't mind. Aziraphale enjoyed and took pride in his ability to ease his pain and make his day a little better. He looked forward to coming home and preparing a nice hot bath for Crowley's back, and then relaxing with a hot cup of tea while they talked about their days.

Soon, Crowley had to stop going to the University. He finished off a semester online with videos, but had to quit after that. He received dozens of letters from former students wishing him a speedy recover, and it touched him. He didn't do much anything during the day while Aziraphale was teaching besides lay in bed and wheel around the flat caring for his plants. The plants didn't seem as scared now that Crowley couldn't get up to see the higher plants. 

It surprised Aziraphale when he came home and Crowley suggested that they adopt a child.


	4. Rehabilitation

After a long process, Crowley and Aziraphale had a small boy named Adam. Crowley, with his secret soft spot for children, found a new reason to get out of bed again. He legs had weakened significantly from not getting out of his chair, and that hadn't improved the pain in his knees as he had hoped. However, he knew that he had to, as Aziraphale put it, "get his ass moving again".

During the adoption process, the two of them would spend the evenings with a physical therapist, and the long, grueling process of walking again. At first, it was miserable. Lots of foul language, lots of giving up. Crowley once made the dangerous mistake of trying to go back to his cane while Aziraphale was at the University. His knees twisted inwards and buckled under his weight almost instantly. He found himself unable to stand, and was left on the floor of the bedroom with added pain from his now very bent and twisted. 

Aziraphale found him crying on the floor, calling out for help. He lifted him onto the bed, and gently scolded him for being reckless. He tried, and failed to hide the panic rising in his voice.

"You...you can't just do this when I'm not here! You could've been seriously injured!" He was so worried he didn't even register that he had also started crying. All Crowley could do was whimper that he was sorry. Aziraphale started dedicating his after work hours to helping Crowley walk again, determined to make it happen no matter how long it took. 

Within a few months, he was back on his cane. The two of them came to the conclusion that he wouldn't improve beyond his current state, and they would have to make it work. Crowley would spend his days doing laps around the flat, anxious to impress Aziraphale with his daily improvements.

When Adam came around, Crowley had energy he hadn't had in decades. Granted, he didn't have as much ease doing things like he did a decade ago, but he was happy to live again. Aziraphale saw a different side of his husband, one he hadn't seen since their wedding. He smiled more, and dressed a little brighter. The general atmosphere of the flat improved with every day.

Crowley had accepted long ago that he would never be pain-free. He had lived in secret suffering for years, trying his best to ignore and live with the pain until it became too much to handle. He missed going to the University and his teaching career, and he often wondered if he would go back when Adam was old enough. Being on his feet again allowed him to get back into gardening and taking care of the house plants, bringing in more color into the room. 

Aziraphale found a sense of pride when he arrived home every day. Seeing his husband and son playing in the family room of the flat brought a cheerful smile to his face afternoon, and he often forgot to grade his papers until late in the night, where Crowley now mercifully got a good night sleep. 

For the first time in forever, there was peace. Sure, it was never going to be the same as it was when they first met. He would never walk without assistance, and his pain would never go away completely, but Crowley made a vow to never climb back into the wheelchair and fall back into his old depressed habits. 

Crowley did make his way back into the teaching scene when Adam entered school. He didn't know if he'd make it back to University, so he took a position at Adam's primary school. The students were young and didn't take notice to the cane beyond the initial meeting. Some of the teachers looked down on him for his downgrade from professor to primary school science teacher, but he didn't mind. He was doing what he loved again, he had a child and a husband he loved dearly, and life got better with every passing day. 

_There was peace._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have bad knees and scoliosis, but not nearly as bad as Crowley here. I tried my best with research into chronic pain for Crowley, but in the end I know it isn't all that accurate. I also am still conflicted on if Crowley and Aziraphale are celestial beings or human in the story, so sorry if that was confusing. I also obviously wrote this over the course of two days in the middle of the night so it's frankly not one of my best works.
> 
> But this was my first time writing anything with Good Omens, and I wanted to say thank you for coming on this journey with me! I hope to do another Good Omens fic in the future, so see you soon!
> 
> -August


End file.
